How Foods Affect Emotions
November 4, 2018
How healthy is your brain? The brain uses more energy than any other organ in the body. If you are experiencing depression, anxiety, memory loss, irritability or addiction, the first thing to look at is your diet and what you are eating. Listen in to today’s Dishing Up Nutrition as we explain how what you eat affects your brain – how certain foods may boost your brain function or how certain foods may zap your brain function.
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Transcript
DAR: Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition. And I thank you for listening to us today. I'm Darlene Kvist and many people would say that you're a very seasoned nutritionist. I've been working with clients for over 40 years. I've been reading research for over 40 years. And I’ve been attending nutritional conferences for over 40 years and I still believe nutrition is the key to being healthy. We all know it's not a secret that what we put in our mouths affects our health. Honestly, even as nutritionists, we don't always want to believe that message, but in reality we know it is true. So joining us this morning as one of our co-host is Carolyn Hudson. She's a very experienced registered dietitian and she even won't tell you how many years. I know it's over 30 years. So she's also sat through many weekend listening to speakers talk about how food affects our health.
CAROLYN: Yes, I have. Thank you. Good morning to our listeners. In fact, both Dar and I just spent last weekend listening to a number of absolutely wonderful speakers talk about how nutrition affects our heart health, our immune system, our hormones, our weight, our energy, and our digestion. So, today we really want to share some of our knowledge and our thoughts about how what we eat affects the physical health of our mind. Isn't that interesting? Think about that for a moment. What we eat actually affects the physical health of our mind.
DAR: Yes. And that's an interesting thought and uninteresting topic. Until very recently when people talked about the mind, they were just referring to our thoughts and our feelings. And even since before Freud, and actually my first degree was in psychology. So psychologists and therapists simply had us focus on life events, and honor traumas and on all the feelings and emotions we experienced in the past. We've talked a lot about the past in therapy. Today we want to talk about the physical health of your mind, which means looking more in depth at the brain. This may be a way of looking at depression or anxiety. We’re considering the physical health of the mind. So the question we might ask, “How healthy is your brain?”
CAROLYN: Yep, but before we delve into our discussion, I have the pleasure of introducing to our listeners a new voice on Dishing Up Nutrition. Joining us today is Melanie Beasley, who is another experience registered and licensed dietitian.
DAR: Now Melanie, how many years has it?
MELANIE: Oh, at least 30. Me and Carolyn are running a race.
CAROLYN: We're running a race and I'm not admitting to how many past 30 it is, but Melanie has worked with a variety of clients in many different settings, so welcome Melanie. So it's great to have you here. So, I wonder if you would mind sharing with us a little about your work experience with all of our listeners and also about some of your own health struggles. Because I know that our clients really want to hear that we not only talk the story of nutrition, but we also personally walk the talk by living it.
MELANIE: That's the truth. Morning, Carolyn and Dar. I'm pretty excited to be here. This is a new experience for me. I'm always up for a new adventure. We'll see how this rolls out if you have me back. But I have a long standing history in nutrition. I worked as a prison dietitian in my first job. Well, much to my mother's dismay. I served in the military as a naval dietitian. I've worked with hospitals, clinics, addiction centers, taught for many classes. So, it's always been my passion. It became more of my passion when I had my own personal health crisis in 2005. I had back surgery and then two weeks later I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I always tell my clients I like to do everything at one time. So, I came across some information for cancer as a Dietitian, but I was so ill I had to let my license lapse. I had multiple surgeries, probably five or six in a span of a year and treatments and I came out of it cancer free. But I was sicker than I've ever been in my life. Close to bedridden. I suffered from migraines and fatigue, depression, chronic infections, and just all over pain.
DAR: So now you really understand what clients are going through.
MELANIE: I do. Your heart just can really step into their situation when you look into the desperation that they're looking for relief because you've been there. It's miserable. And I always tell my client, it's chemistry, it's really not your character. If we get it straightened out, providing relief for our clients is the biggest joy I think in our job. And you're not crazy.
CAROLYN: Because a lot of people in that situation start feeling like they're crazy because doctors aren't listening to them and it is not their character.
DAR: Right. Exactly. Well that's great, so you've had a lot of different experiences. You've had your own health issues and you understand people.
MELANIE: It is absolutely wonderful to get your life back.
DAR: Yes, so today we will explain that what you eat affects your brain. And I think that's a whole new thought for a lot of people.
CAROLYN: It really is. I know every time I say that to clients, they just go, “Really?!”
DAR: There are certain foods that boost your brain function and there are certain foods that may zap your brain function. This morning as you were pouring milk over your bowl of cereal, did you think, “Will this boosts my brain function or will that genetically modified grains and sugar in the cereal zap my brain function?” Well, you know what we think. Most of us know that sugar increases our triglyceride number and I didn't even know if most people know that.
CAROLYN: Yeah, I'm not sure. Most of my clients don't know that when we go through their lipid panels.
DAR: Triglycerides go up with sugar and research has found that a high triglyceride number puts people at risk for heart disease and stroke. So that's really an important number to know. So, how does sugar affect our mind or our brain function?
CAROLYN: Well, we know the brain uses more energy than any other organ. That's another new thought. It is more than the liver, more than the kidneys and more than the heart. That's shocking. So, we've got to treat it right. So the right amount of glucose is the brain's fuel source. However, if your brain gets too much sugar, your thinking skills are impaired and of course your self control becomes impaired. So excess sugar can produce actually an addiction like behavior in the brain leading to that loss of self control and mood swings, lack of focus and memory issues.
DAR: And I think Carolyn, maybe say that one more time because that's a big statement that you just said. Sugar does what?
CAROLYN: Sugar produces and addiction, like behavior in the brain, and that leads loss of self control, those horrible mood swings, lack of focus and memory issues.
DAR: And I bet it right after Halloween.
CAROLYN: I can't even imagine those poor teachers in the classroom and mothers.
MELANIE: That excess sugar is so damaging. It's something we always talk about. As a dietitian I help my clients first. We look at the foods they're eating, so if they're experiencing depression and anxiety, memory loss, that irritability and addictions, one of my first questions is to ask them, “What foods are you eating that could cause your brain to feel fatigued?” I usually get the deer in the headlights look because, they don't realize the connection between feeling spacey or fearful or irritable out of control to sugar.
DAR: Interesting you said one of the symptoms of feeling fearful. And we have a lot of people with that going on.
CAROLYN: Yeah, well, believe it or not, it's ready for our first break. So, you're listening to Dishing Up Nutrition.
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DAR: Well, welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition brought to you by Nutritional Weight & Wellness.
CAROLYN: So, before we went to break, we were talking about our brain health, right? That's what our show is all about today. So we all have a very complex brain system and no single neurotransmitter or neuropathway or brain region actually works alone, right? So just like a single supplement or an herb or any of your foods, they don't work alone. It takes all of the nutrients working together to achieve results. So if you or a family member is struggling with depression or anxiety or memory problems, let's just talk about some simple changes you can make in what you're eating to improve that brain health.
DAR: We often talk here that you can change your nutrition to change your brain. Your thoughts and feelings correlate to the physical health of your brain. That's a big statement. It's a new thought for people. This is certainly a new way to look at helping people overcome ADHD, depression, anxiety, memory loss, all those things that affect our brain.
MELANIE: And talking about some of the food things that can affect our brain. First, let's look at the simple food additive, MSG or monosodium glutamate. I mean, how does your brain function on MSG? People don't think that that could possibly affect their brain. MSG is just a food additive that dilates the blood vessels and can really short circuit your focus and your attention. Not only does MSG confuse your thinking, but it is actually a neurotoxin. It's alarming. I always call it an additive that lies. It tells our brains that what we're eating actually tastes better than it does. It wears out our brains. It wears out our brain cells and they become fatigued and therefore you can lack the ability to function effectively.
CAROLYN: So, if you're struggling with ADHD, depression, or anxiety, we recommend that you avoid those foods containing MSG. And most of you migraine sufferers, sufferers are well aware of that MSG connection to migraines. But do you know why MSG may trigger a Migraine for you? I think a lot of people don't. So, why is MSG bad for your brain? Well, that MSG actually stimulates an excitatory neurotransmitter, which encourages nerve cells to fire more frequently and more rapidly.
DAR: So, it sounds like, Carolyn, that it makes your brain almost overwork.
CAROLYN: Yeah, that's a good way to put it. It's like over firing, overstimulated. So, the result may be a migraine or possibly one of those emotional outbursts. So think about your children. And some of this stuff I wish I would have known a while ago, but now I have grandchildren and I can try to figure it out. So, if you're sensitive to MSG and if you experience migraines when you're exposed to it, we recommend of course that you avoid MSG. But you may be thinking, but how do I avoid the foods that contain MSG? Because it's really often hidden, isn't it? It's a hidden additive in many foods. So yes, MSG can be difficult to avoid unless you're eating very clean.
MELANIE: Carolyn, I always tell my friends that I am a good barometer for MSG because I get a migraine so I should be a food tester for people in our nutrition classes. We point out that MSG may appear as “natural flavors” on food labels. It's found in so many commercial salad dressings and soup bases, meat stocks and sauces, frozen foods, and of course those fast foods.
DAR: So, perhaps you lack attention or you have impulsive symptoms of ADHD and they're not the result of trauma, but maybe instead it might be the result of eating fast food for lunch or there's a millions of things that affect our brain chemistry and MSG is just one. And it's in everything.
CAROLYN: It is, it is, and it, it is disguised. So we really have to watch. I know, I always tell people when it says “natural flavors,” red flag, red flag, you really don't know what that means. I wish we did, but we don't. Inside our brain really are billions and billions of nerve cells. And they're connected by billions of fibers called axons and dendrites. The activity between them actually controls your thoughts and your feelings, your personality, your moods, and your memory. So interesting.
DAR: Then I think that's an interesting point because it's this interaction that's going on in your brain that controls what?
CAROLYN: It controls, everything, really. Your thoughts, your feelings, your personality, your mood, your memory. So, all of those axons and dendrites and billions of nerve cells in your brain. Your brain is your control center and it is very vulnerable to its environment. And it reacts to guess what? Food, drugs, herbs, exercise usually in a good way, right? And of course all of our lifestyle habits like smoking.
MELANIE:And to get a little personal, another mood zapper and even a sexual performance inhibitor can show up in your lunch, in the form of hotdogs or Deli meats containing the preservatives called nitrates.
CAROLYN: I bet you caught attention there, Melanie.
MELANIE: I did. I bet everyone's listening now. If you eat hot dogs or cold cuts containing nitrates, they can impair the effectiveness of nitric oxide, which is vital to moods and libido. So if you still want to eat hot dogs, brats, or cold cuts, we definitely encourage you to choose nitrate-free foods so your brain can function properly. When you're looking for a hot dog or a deli meat maybe for a picnic, you want to make sure it says “no nitrates, no antibiotics, no added hormones, no grain products, no preservatives, and no MSG”, and that's a lot of no's. But you're saying yes to health, right?
CAROLYN: Yeah, that would be what we call a clean food. Clean food. I know we're talking about foods that affect our emotions and our memory, but before we discuss foods and supplements that support our emotions, let's discuss one lifestyle habit that is critical for having a healthy functioning brain. It is a habit that affects about 80 percent of the population. And guess what it is? It’s the lack of sleep. Inadequate sleep is a mood zapper. Inadequate sleep is a memory zapper and inadequate sleep is an attention and concentration sapper. It is a fact that when you sleep less than eight hours most nights, your concentration and focus is reduced by guess what? Seventy percent. That's a lot. As you're walking around like a Zombie. We've all been there.
CAROLYN: Well, guess what? It's time for a second break already, so you're listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. In the past, people generally change their nutrition only to lose weight, but now people are sitting down with a dietitian or nutritionist to learn how to eat for better digestion or to have less pain and inflammation or how to get rid of hormonal mood swings. Do you need a change in your nutrition to feel better? Maybe you need a class or an individual consultation. Don't let poor nutrition ruin your holidays. We can help you. Call us at 651-699-3438 today and ask any and all of your questions.
BREAK
MELANIE: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. One of my early nutrition jobs was working as a Dietitian in the navy. It was such a privilege. So, this research reported in the American Journal of Nutrition definitely caught my eye. The research is titled “The Influence Habitual Protein Intake on Body Composition and Muscular Strength in Career Firefighters.” I found this information really surprising. Despite the extreme physical demands and dangers associated with the job, that percentage of firefighters considered overweight and obese exceeds that of the general US population. Isn't that sad? This research found higher protein intake was associated with more favorable body composition. In male career firefighters, this research also found firefighters did their best when eating .8 grams of protein per kilogram of body mass. So what does that mean? So for example, if you were a 180 pound firefighter, you should eat about 144 grams of protein daily, which is equivalent to about 20 ounces of protein per day. That's a lot.
[CORRECTION: The research about the recommended amount of protein needed to rebuild muscle for overweight firefighters was calculated in kilograms rather than in pounds, which is where the confusion came in. For example, a 250 pound man= 113.64 kilograms x .8 grams =91 grams of protein or 13 ounces of protein per day at a minimum. This is different from what we shared on the show. The takeaway is that it takes sufficient protein to rebuild muscle mass and metabolism.]
CAROLYN: I am sure most people aren't doing that. I mean 180 pounds, but still most men would still say, “Oh, that's probably too much protein for me.”
MELANIE: Yeah. Or you throw a little protein and a salad and think you've got it covered. But you don't. We at Nutritional Weight & Wellness would love to help those firefighters and help them maintain a healthy body composition.
CAROLYN: Well, before we went to break Dar was telling us about how lack of sleep affects us and she said that sleeping less than eight hours actually reduces your concentration and focus by 70 percent. That's a lot. So, extreme symptoms of lack of sleep also include things like paranoia. Paranoia and inability to concentrate, lack of being able to concentrate, loss of memory, loss of your ability to think. I certainly have had that happen and in the years when my dad was ill and when you're doing caregiving and those overnight stays, sometimes it was like the next day I was like a Zombie. So seriously, long term sleep deprivation can lead to high cortisol levels, which can lead to weight gain and even cell death.
MELANIE: That's so true. Carolyn, I see so many of my clients, they're sleep deprived and they're just miserable and they're trying to lose weight so it doesn't work. And if sleep is so important and nutrition is the key to a good night's sleep, I really, really encourage people to come in who are struggling with sleep because we have solutions. They can make an appointment with us at Nutritional Weight & Wellness and one of our Dietitians can help them with their sleep problems. We have a lot of ideas for people. We really have some great ideas that nutrition can master this problem. And generally one of the simplest for clients I recommend are higher doses of Magnesium Glycinate.
CAROLYN: That’s a go to.
MELANIE: It's a miracle mineral. It often takes about 600 to 800 milligrams of magnesium glycinate at bedtime.
DAR: So, that means it takes more than just taking one. It needs to be taking six since they're usually about 100 milligrams.
MELANIE: And it needs to be that magnesium glycinate.
DAR: Because it gets absorbed.
MELANIE: We don't want to trigger someone into diarrhea. With that they can also do like five to 10 milligrams of Melatonin. As a cancer survivor, I've looked at the research about Melatonin and I find it in all the research that supports the immune system and it's actually an anticancer supplement. I take it every night.
DAR: So that's a very interesting thing. You actually take Melatonin every night. Not necessarily just to sleep, but as a cancer prevention.
MELANIE: Protection.
CAROLYN: And I think we even heard that last weekend at our conference and I was really taking note of that because I haven't been taking Melatonin, but I think I'm going to start.
MELANIE: Well I sleep wonderfully!
DAR: Who knows how it works, but maybe that's how it works because people are sleeping better when they take Melatonin.
CAROLYN: It’s a good thought. So, a few years ago when we had clients with sleep problems, all they really needed was to take a couple of nutrients and they were able to sleep. But now we need to really look deeper at what's going on and maybe suggest supplements like 5-HTP because that helps with our serotonin production. Of course, that's one of the neurotransmitters. And it will help support the neurotransmitter, GABA and sometimes we have to add an L-Taurine and that's another trend neurotransmitter for your brain and it's very, very common. So there's no one kind of cookie cutter type answer for every client and sometimes it isn't simple and sometimes it can just be really something simple about not going to bed hungry. Or having the right bedtime snack so that helps support your sleep because the brain needs to have the correct amount of glucose throughout the night in order to be able to sleep. So people that wake up in the middle of the night, they're the ones that really need that bedtime snack. So some research says that lack of sleep is one of the leading causes of depression. Going back to our whole brain health thing, right? And heart disease and obesity.
DAR: I think, Carolyn, one of the things that we hear all the time because in the past people always heard that, “Oh, you shouldn't eat at bedtime.” Because you won't lose weight if you do. So then, particularly women are always going to bed hungry, then they can't sleep, and then they gain more weight. Crazy, isn't it? Yeah. So, in Dr Daniel Amen’s book, I love his writings, but it in his book called Making a Good Brain Great, written in 2005. He wrote, “You are what you eat.” Literally all the cells in your body, including your brain cells, make themselves new every five months. Five months. So Dr Amen said, “Food is as powerful as any medicine that science can design”. I love the things that he says. He has such a simple understanding of what helps people. Eat right and you feel better. Eat wrong, such as have three donuts to start your day, and you could feel maybe stupid in 30 to 60 minutes. That brain fog. So again, what we're talking about today isn't new information and it's not the first time we've talked about how food affects emotions on Dishing Up Nutrition. But it is very interesting that the sales of antidepressants are on the rise. And so we decided it was important enough to discuss this topic again because we want food to be on the up.
CAROLYN: How we eat should be at the top of everybody's list. So in fact, sales of antidepressants have increased 65 percent in the past 15 years. And we’re seeing it all the time, aren't we? Approximately 17 percent of women take antidepressants and the suicide rate has increased by 24 percent in the past 15 years. So, our longtime listeners all know food affects our mood. So, why might I ask if a person is experiencing low moods or irritability or anxiety, why isn't the first appointment people make to get well an appointment with a nutritionist or dietitian rather than the psychiatrist?
MELANIE: I mean, when you're in a place, you're in that low mood, you really are just looking for relief. And I don't think people think food is the place. So, let's get back to the biochemical reasons for why eating the right foods support our moods and our emotions. On Dishing Up Nutrition and Nutritional Weight & Wellness, we recommend eating protein and vegetables or fruits and beneficial fat every three hours.
DAR: And that is a really difficult habit to establish.
MELANIE:Are we not the most fat phobic nation? But of course if we're eating every three hours, it helps to balance the blood sugar like Carolyn was talking about and it helps prevent diabetes. So how does protein influence our moods? Let me just break this down. We recommend eating protein several times throughout the day. Not that little splash of protein on a salad, but several times because protein is the building block of all our new neurotransmitters and protein is the building block of all our brain chemicals, including those considering dopamine, Serotonin, Acetylcholine, and many, many more. So this is how it works. Protein breaks down into amino acids which in turn make our neurotransmitter dopamine. That's what gives us the focus and the energy and the positive moods. And the neurotransmitter serotonin gives you that sense of wellbeing and a sense of calm and happiness. Don’t we all want that?
DAR: I think before we keep going here further, let's go back to getting people to think. Okay, protein. So like you said, that little submitters of protein gets on the cell, that's probably about two ounces easily. That is not enough protein at all.
CAROLYN: So, it's time for our last break so we'll get back to that. So you're listening to Dishing Up Nutrition and I want to personally thank you for listening today. If you like our show Dishing Up Nutrition, I encourage you to ask your friends and family to listen to either a live broadcast or you can listen to it online however you get your favorite podcast. We are on a mission to help everyone experience good health through real food nutrition.
BREAK
DAR: So, we were talking before we went on break about the need to have protein because kind of running through this one more time so people understand, when you eat a piece of protein it actually breaks down and makes your neurotransmitters. So it makes our dopamine which gives us focus and energy and we feel great. It makes our serotonin, which makes us feel calm. It makes a neurotransmitter that's called Taurine, which actually helps us feel again, calm and relaxed. So there's many, many different neurotransmitters. Actually, there's a couple of hundred different ones. And in the base of that is eating a little bit of protein several times a day. So, we constantly supply our brain with neurotransmitters.
MELANIE: Such a simple solution.
DAR: It doesn't act as probably as fast as an antidepressant.
CAROLYN: What I tell my clients is that the antidepressants aren't actually making more neurotransmitter. They're only holding what that client has in between their brain cells long enough for those brain cells to get it into the brain cell. So what I want to do and what we all do is help you make more neurotransmitters. And that's protein, protein, protein, protein, protein, several times a day. The neurotransmitter, acetylcholine helps you with your memory and your learning as well as your muscles and central nervous system. So if you're deficient in protein, you may experience the, “Oh, I can't stop with one” type of behavior. Or maybe you might be feeling anxious and weepy or have a poor memory.
DAR: So, we've been talking about protein. So here we go again. Protein helps supply us with a mineral, zinc. Now, why do we need zinc? We need zinc in our bodies daily because we can't store it. About a three ounce piece of meat like beef supplies us with about seven milligrams of zinc, which is the amount of zinc we need to help our neurotransmitters function. So in our brain we need zinc for neurotransmitters to work. So, if you lost your sense of taste or smell, that's an indication that maybe your zinc is low and we have seen this when people that are older. They’ve lost their appetite. They can’t eat.
MELANIE: They’re not interested because nothing tastes good.
CAROLYN: If you lose your sense of smell, you actually can't taste.
MELANIE: Another critical vitamin that you get from meat that is important for your nerves is B-12. So about 15 percent of the population is low in vitamin B-12. And if you're low in vitamin B-12, you can experience tingling in your hands and feet. And additionally you might experience confusion and feeling exhausted or wiped out. A client recently came in, she thought she had neuropathy and she got tested. It was a low B-12. We started her on a good B-12 and the tingling went away and she was so relieved.
DAR: What a great solution.
CAROLYN:Yeah, easy too, right? And we often see that B-12 deficiency in vegetarians, don't we? So we always have to ask questions, ask a million questions. Right? “Could you repeat that again?” Or, “Can you tell me more about that symptom?” We’re always saying that. “What does that mean?”
DAR: I don’t think that people have the understanding that food has as much power and as much influence on our brain chemistry. I think they just think that it sits up there and it doesn't need nutrients, but like you said in an earlier in the show, it uses up the most energy of any organ in our body.
CAROLYN: Right. And then the other thing that I think people are just still blown away about is we actually make these things in our gut. And their eyes become wide open. They go, “What?! I don't make that in my brain?” No, your brain can't actually make that, but it's made in your. And it goes to your brain.
MELANIE:It’s always the starting place and people are surprised that when they have digestive issues that it can be causative of their anxiety and their depression.
CAROLYN: Right. And they're just blown away when we say, “Okay, let's fix those digestion issues first and then we can move on to the next step because everything begins in the gut.”
DAR: And we heard that over and over this weekend and we say all the time ourselves. So, as you have just heard, food affects your emotions because food and nutrients affect your brain health and your brain health drives emotional health. That's a big statement actually. Your brain health drives your emotional health. How many people ever really think that way?
MELANIE: They think it's a character flaw, honestly. And when they think it’s a character flaw, they're just defeated. And I always encourage my clients, you've tried everything else. Let's just give food to try. Let's give nutrition try. What have you got to lose? It's just food.
DAR: I think the other thing that, Carolyn, you said that we actually need food. We need that protein to make our amino acids so that if we are taking antidepressants, they actually work.
CAROLYN: They work better, much better. Because we have more of those neurotransmitters that need to get into our brain cells so that we aren't anxious. We're not depressed, we don't have those mood swings. And then I think early on in the show we were talking a little bit about sugar. Sugar may give us that temporary high feeling and good feeling, but then what happens? We crash and then our brain gets into that foggy area.
MELANIE: And Carolyn, another connection, we talk about sugar a lot, but gluten for me, I call it getting glutened. If I got gluten then my daughters the next day will look at me and say, “Did you have gluten?” Because I'm dialed down. My mood is lower. People don't make the connection between there’s certain food intolerances that can dramatically affect you.
CAROLYN: So let's go back with that one. So you're intolerant to gluten. Someone else might be intolerant to dairy or whatever. And what does that do? That affects your gut, right? And it actually damages your gut lining. So then you're not able to make those neurotransmitters from the protein that you ate. So, dramatically can affect the brain. So you have to look at some of those kind of send food sensitivities that people are having in order to really change our brain health. But, it all again begins in the gut, right?
DAR: And we know that a lot of times when people are deficient in B-12, they either are not eating enough protein or they're eating protein and digestively they can't break it down, so we can't get it into our cells. So going back to your gluten story, a lot of people that have a gluten sensitivity seems like they also have a B-12 deficiency. So it all fits together and that's what we try to do. We're not just in the business of helping people lose weight.
MELANIE: We're not walking around being the nutritional hand slappers.
CAROLYN: Well, and when someone does come into my office with weight issues and wants to lose weight, but then I read their health questionnaire and there's like five auto immune things going on and maybe some lipid issues. I'm going, “Ah, we really need to work on getting you healthy first to lose weight.” And then what about the sleep thing? You were talking a lot about the sleep. When we interviewed the book on why we sleep. That was just unbelievable, wasn't it? The information he linked to what happens with sleep or lack of sleep was fascinating.
DAR: And I think what happens is that people realize that they're not sleeping, but they don't know what to do about it. And so then they go and they try to take a drug and I think he said it very nicely in his book. Those drugs sedate you and it feels like you're sleeping, but honestly you're not getting into that rem sleep. So that's not really effective for how it's going to help your brain function. So, we go all the way back and we try to help people get to the bottom of the sleep. And maybe it's something as simple as magnesium and Melatonin, but maybe it's more complex than that. So that's what we do every day. So you have to think, “Change your nutrition to change your emotional health.”
CAROLYN: So our goal at Nutritional Weight & Wellness is to help each and every person experience better health through eating real food. It's a simple, yet powerful message. Eating real food is life changing. Thank you for listening and have a wonderful day.
